‘Lion’-Uno Signed for Dream 17; Sasahara Teases Foreign Aoki Foe

'Lion Takeshi' is set to meet a fellow former Shooto champ. |
Photo: Daniel Herbertson/Sherdog.com

Dream 17 has its first bout, and it's a pairing of former Shooto
world champions.

The promotion confirmed the first bout for Dream 17
on Wednesday, formalizing a featherweight clash between popular
Japanese MMA veteran Caol Uno and
former two-time Shooto 143-pound world champion "Lion" Takeshi
Inoue. Dream 17 is scheduled for Sept. 24 at Saitama Super
Arena in Saitama, Japan.

"This next fight will become an important bout in determining who
challenges for the featherweight title," said Dream event producer
Keiichi Sasahara of the Uno-Inoue pairing.

Dream featherweight champion Hiroyuki
Takaya made the first defense of his title on July 16, earning
a split decision over 2000 Sydney Games freestyle wrestling
olympian Kazuyuki
Miyata.

Both Uno, 36, and Inoue, 31, fell to the aforementioned Miyata in
his contendership run. Miyata earned unanimous nods over Inoue and
Uno in September and December of last year respectively.

The Yokohama native Inoue has fought twice since his loss to
Miyata, taking impressive stoppages of Shooto Pacific Rim champion
Taiki
Tsuchiya, as well as Deep featherweight championKoichiro
Matsumoto in a four-week span in April and May.

Uno, a native of Yokosuka, Kanagawa -- nearby to Inoue's home of
Yokohama -- earned his first win as a featherweight this past May,
when he bested Inoue's Shooting Gym Yokohama teammate "Wicky" Akiyo
Nishiura by unanimous decision.

Sasahara also revealed that the promotion hoped to add Dream
lightweight champion Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri and MMA icon Kazushi Sakuraba to the bill, but that the three men
were not official for the card yet. Sasahara did however tease
Aoki's opponent as one that would get hardcore MMA fans
attention.

"I wanted to finalize Aoki's opponent for today's press conference,
but we're still narrowing things down," Sasahara explained. "We
haven't fully completed negotiations, but we've narrowed down the
candidates. I believe it'll be a strong foreigner that hardcore MMA
fans will be delighted to see."